DRAMATIZATION 

OF 

TENNYSON'S 

PRINCESS." 



u 



BY 



GRACE C. BELL 



DRAMATIZATION 



TENNYSON'S "PRINCESS." 



BY 



/ 

GRACE C. BELL, 

TEACHER OF ELOCUTION AND PHYSICAL CULTURE. 



//- 



^r^ry^ 



GRACE C. BELL, 

1710 Chestnut Street, 

philadelphia. 



. \% -. 



V"A 






Copyright, 1893, 

BY 

Grace C. Bell. 



PhINTED by J. B. LiPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA. 



sx 



The dramatization of " The Princess" was found 
to be a necessity. Many pupils read the poem, not 
very carefully, probably, and found little in it to in- 
terest them. 

The arrangement of it as a dialogue awakened a 
new interest. 

This dramatization is intended not only for reading 
in classes, but to be performed by the pupils. Six 
scenes are sufficient for an evening's entertainment, 
and for this reason much that might have been in- 
troduced for reading has been omitted, and only 
those scenes necessary for a proper conception of 
the poem have been used. 

The entire poem should be read and re-read in 
connection with the dramatization. 

G. C. B. 



DRAMATIS PERSONS. 

Princess Ida, daughter of King Gama, the Southern Mon- 
arch. 

LadyPvsche, Uer assistants. 

Lady Blanche, ) 

Melissa, Lady Blanche's daughter. 

The Prince, son of the Northern Monarch, 

Florian, 



' [ his friends. 
Cyril, J 



Messenger. 
Pupils. 



DRAMATIZATION 



TENNYSON'S "PRINCESS." 



SCENE I. — A room in a hostelry. 
Enter the Prince, Florian, and Cyril, 

Cyril. Most curious am I to hear your story. 

Floriait. I must confess I'm curious, too. 

Prince. Well, then, I'll tell it you. 
While life was yet in bud and blade, betroth'd was I 
To one, a neighboring Princess. 

From time to time 
Came murmurs of her beauty from the South, 
And still I wore her picture by my heart. 
And one dark tress ; and all around them both 
Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about their 
queen. 

But when the days drew nigh that I should wed. 
My father sent ambassadors with furs 
And jewels, gifts, to fetch her : these brought back 
A present, a great labor of the loom ; 
And therewithal an answer vague as wind : 
Besides, they saw the king ; he took the gifts ; 
He said there was a compact ; that was true : 

I* 5 



6 Dramatization of Temiy son's " Princess^ 

But then she had a will ; was he to blame ? 

And maiden fancies ; loved to live alone 

Among her women ; certain, would not wed. 

He said, there were widows with her. 

Two widows, Lady Psyche, Lady Blanche; 

They fed her theories, in and out of place, 

Maintaining that with equal husbandry 

The woman were an equal to the man. 

At last she begg'd a boon, — 

A certain summer-palace which he had ; 

He, being an easy man, gave it : and there, 

All wild, to found an University 

For maidens, on the spur she fled ; and more 

They know not, — only this : they see no men, 

Not ev'n her brother Arac, nor the twins 

Her brethren, tho' they love her, look upon her 

As on a kind of paragon. 

Now, while they spake, I saw my father's face 
Grow long and troubled like a rising moon. 
Inflamed with wrath : he started on his feet. 
Tore the king's letter, snow'd it down, and rent 
The wonder of the loom thro' warp and woof 
From skirt to skirt ; and at the last he sware 
That he would send a hundred thousand men. 
And bring her in a whirlwind. 

At last I spoke. " My father, let me go ; 
It cannot be but some gross error lies 
In this report, this answer of a king 
Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable : 
Or, maybe, I myself, my bride once seen, 
Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame. 
May rue the bargain made." 



Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess." 7 

" No !" 
Roar'd my father, " you shall not ; we ourself 
Will crush her pretty maiden fancies dead 
In iron gauntlets." 
Still, I am determined to see this haughty princess. 

Florian. I have a sister at the foreign court. 
Who moves about the Princess ; she, you know. 
Who wedded with a nobleman from thence : 
He, dying lately, left her, as I hear, 
The lady of three castles in that land : 
Thro* her this matter might be sifted clean. 

Prince. So far, good. 

Cyril. Take me with you, too ; 
I'll serve you better in a strait ; 
I grate on rusty hinges here. 

Prince. A thought has just flashed through me. 
Do you remember how we three 
Presented Maid and Nymph and Goddess 
At a feast in my father's court ? 

Florian \langhing\. Indeed I do. 

Cyril. And well the toggery became us. 
You, Prince, were a maiden fair to see. 

Priftce. Why can we not, disguised as maidens, 
Enter this dreadful University, 
Since none but maidens are admitted there ? 

Cyril The very thing ! 

Floria?t. I'm ready to don a maiden's gown. 

Prince. Come, let us get some one to fetch the gear. 
\Exeunt, in great glee. 



8 Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess^ 

SCENE 11.— A room in the University. 

The Princess is seated at a table, dictating to the Lady 

Blanche, who writes iji a ponderous volume. 

Enter attendant with a letter, which she gives to the 
Princess. 

Princess [reads']. "Three ladies of the Northern empire 

pray 
Your Highness would enroll them with your own, 
As Lady Pysche's pupils." 

[To attendant.] Bid them enter. 

Enter Prince, Florian, and Cyril, disguised as 
maidens. 

We give you welcome: not without redound 
Of use and glory to yourself ye come, 
The first-fruits of the stranger : aftertime, 
And that full voice which circles round the grave, 
Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me. 
What ! are the ladies of your land so tall ? 

Cyril. We of the Court. 

Princess. From the Court? 

Then ye know the Prince ? 

Cyril. The climax of his age ! as tho' there were 
One rose in all the world, your Highness that, 
He worships your ideal. 

Princess. We scarcely thought in our own hall to 
hear 
This barren verbiage, current among men, 
Light coin, the tinsel clink of compliment. 
Your flight from out your bookless wilds would seem 
As arguing love of knowledge and of power ; 



Dramatization of Teimyson^s " Princess^ g 

Your language proves you still the child. Indeed, 
We dream not of him : when we set our hand 
To this great work, we purposed with ourself 
Never to wed. You likewise will do well, 
Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling 
The tricks, which make us toys of men, that so, 
Some future time, if so indeed you will, 
You may with those self-styled our lords ally 
Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with scale. 
Lady Blanche, will you the statutes read ? 

Lady BlancJie \j'eads\. " I promise, 

Not for three years to correspond with home ; 
Not for three years to cross the liberties ; 
Not for three years to speak with any men." 

\The new pupils sign their names. 

Princess. Now ye are green wood : see ye warp not. 
O lift your natures up : 
Embrace our aims : work out your freedom. Girls, 
Knowledge is now no more a fountain seal'd : 
Drink deep, until the habits of the slave, 
The sins of emptiness, gossip and spite 
And slander, die. Better not be at all 
Than not be noble. 

To-day the Lady Psyche will harangue 
The fresh arrivals of the week before ; 
For they press in from all the provinces, 
And fill the hive. 

[Dismisses them.. 



lo Dramatization of Tennyson! s " Princess^ 



SCENE III. — Lady Psyche's class-room ; pupils as- 
sembled. Prince, Florian, and Cyril seated together. 

Florian \_whispering\. My sister ! 

Cynl. Comely, too, by all that's fair. 

Prince. O hush, hush ! 

[Lady Psyche delivers her lecture. 

Lady Psyche. This world was once a fluid haze of 
light. 
Fill toward the centre set the starry tides, 
And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast 
The planets : then the monster, then the man ; 
Tattoo'd or woaded, winter-clad in skins, 
Raw from the prime, and crushing down his mate ; 
As yet we find in barbarous isles, and here 
Among the lowest. 

Deep, indeed, 
Our debt of thanks to her who first dared 
To leap the rotten pales of prejudice, 
Disyoke our necks from custom, and assert 
None lordlier than ourselves but that which made 
Woman and man. She has founded ; we must build. 
Here may you learn whatever men are taught. 
Some say our heads are less — 
Some men's are small ; not they the least of men. 
For often fineness compensates for size : 
Besides, the brain is like the hand, and grows 
With using ; hence the man's, if more is more ; 
He takes advantage of his strength to be 
First in the field : some ages have been lost ; 
But woman ripens earlier, and her life 
Is longer. 



Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess^ 1 1 

In the future there will be, everywhere, 
Two heads in council, two beside the hearth. 
Two in the tangled business of the world, 
Two in the liberal offices of life. 
Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss 
Of science, and the secrets of the mind : 
Musician, painter, sculptor, critic, more : 
And everywhere the broad and bounteous Earth 
Shall bear a double growth of those rare souls, 
Poets, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the world. 

\TJie pupils sing. 

Sweet and low, sweet and low, 

Wind of the western sea, 
Low, low, breathe and blow, 

Wind of the western sea ! 
Over the rolling waters go, 
Come from the dying moon, and blow. 

Blow him again to me ; 
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps. 

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest, 

Father will come to thee soon ; 
Rest, rest, on mother's breast, 

Father will come to thee soon ; 
Father will come to his babe in the nest, 
Silver sails all out of the west 

Under the silver moon : 
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. 

\Pupils pass out at close of the song. The 
Prince^ Florian, and Cyril remain. 
Lady Psyche. My brother ! 
Florian. Well, my sister ? 

Lady Psyche. What do you here ? and in this 
dress ? and these ? 



1 2 Dramatization of Tennyson^ s " Princess^ 

Why, who are these ? a wolf within the fold ! 
A pack of wolves ! the Lord be gracious to me ! 
A plot, a plot, a plot, to ruin all ! 

Florian. No plot ! no plot ! 

Lady Psyche. Wretched boy. 
How saw you not the inscription on the gate, — 
Let no man enter in on pain of death? 

Florian. And if I had, who could think 
The softer Adams of your Academe, 
O sister. Sirens tho' they be, were such 
As chanted on the blanching bones of men ? 

Lady Psyche. But you will find it otherwise. 
You jest : ill jesting with edge-tools ! my vow 
Binds me to speak, and O that iron will. 
That axehke edge unturnable, our Head, 
The Princess. 

Florian. Well then. Psyche, take my life, 
And nail me hke a weasel on a grange 
For warning : bury me beside the gate, 
And cut this epitaph above my bones : 
Here lies a brother by a sister slain, 
All for the co^nmon good of womankind. 

Cyril. Let me die too, having seen 
And heard the Lady Psyche. 

Prince. Albeit so mask'd, madam, I love the truth ; 
Receive it ; and in me behold the Prince 
Your countryman, affianced years ago 
To the Lady Ida : here, for here she was. 
And thus (what other way was left ?) I came. 

Lady Psyche. O sir, O Prince, I have no countiy ; 
none ; 
If any, this ; but none. Whate'er I was. 



Dramatization of Tenny son's ^' Princess y 13 

Disrooted, what I am is grafted here. 
Affianced, sir ? love-whispers may not breathe 
Within this vestal limit ; and how should I, 
Who am not mine, say, live : the thunderbolt 
Hangs silent ; but prepare : I speak ; it falls. 

Prince. Yet pause ; for that inscription therb 
I think no more of deadly lurks therein. 
Than in a clapper clapping in a garth. 
To scare the fowl from fruit : if more there be, 
If more and acted on, what follows ? war ; 
Your own work marr'd : for this your Academe, 
Whichever side be victor, in the halloo 
Will topple to the trumpet down, and pass 
With all fair theories only made to gild 
A stormless summer. 

Lady Psyche. Let the Princess judge of that. 

Farewell, sir, — and to you. 
I shudder at the sequel, but I go. 

\She turns back suddenly. 

hard, when love and duty clash ! A little will I 

yield. 
Best so, perchance, for us, and well for you, I fear 
My conscience will not count me fleckless ; yet — 
Hear my conditions : promise (otherwise 
You perish) as you came, to slip away, 
To-day, to-morrow, soon : it shall be said. 
These women were too barbarous, would not learn ; 
They fled, who might have shamed us : promise, all. 

\They promise. Lady Psyche then turns to 
Florian and takes his hands. 

1 knew you at the first : tho* you have grown. 
You scarce have altered ; I am sad and glad 

3 



14 Dramatization of Tennyson' s^^ Prince ss^ 

To see you, Florian. / give thee to death, 
My brother ! it was duty spoke, not I. 
My needful seeming harshness, pardon it. 
Our mother, is she well ? 

Melissa enters. 

Melissa. I brought a message here from Lady 
Blanche. 

Lady Psyche [starting]. Ah, Melissa — you ! 
You heard us ? 

Melissa. O pardon me ! 

I heard, I could not help it, did not wish : 
But, dearest lady, pray you fear me not, 
Nor think I bear that heart within my breast, 
To give three gallant gentlemen to death. 

Lady Psyche. I trust you, for we two 
Were always friends, none closer, elm and vine : 
But yet your mother's jealous temperament — 
Let not your prudence, dearest, drowse, or prove 
The Danaid of a leaky vase, for fear 
This whole foundation ruin, and I lose 
My honor, these their lives. 

Melissa. Ah ! fear me not ; I would not tell, 
No, not for all Aspasia's cleverness ; 
No, not to answer, madam, all those hard things 
That Sheba cam^e to ask of Solomon. 

Lady Psyche. Be it so. 

[To the others^ Go ; we have been too long 
Together: keep your hoods about the face; 
They do so that affect abstraction here. 
Speak little ; mix not with the rest ; and hold 
Your promise : all, I trust, may yet be well. 

[Exeunt Prince, Florian, and Cyril. 



Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess!' 1 5 

SCENE IN.— A Woodland Scene. 

The Prince and Princess are seated on a rustic bench. 

The pupils are strolli^ig to and fro. 

Princess. O friend, we trust that you esteem'd us 
not 
Too harsh to your companion yestermorn ; 
Unwillingly we spake. 

Prince. No — not to her, 

But to one of whom we spake 
Your Highness might have seem'd the thing you say. 

Princess. Again ? Are you ambassadresses 
From him to me ? We give you, being strange, 
A license : speak, and let the topic die. 

Prince [stammering], I know him well — and 
hoped — 
Our king expects — was there no precontract ? 
There is no truer-hearted — ah, you seem 
All he prefigured, and he could not see 
The bird of passage flying south, but long'd 
To follow : surely, if your Highness keep 
Your purport, you will shock him ev'n to death, 
Or baser courses, children of despair. 

Pnncess. Poor boy, can he not read — no books ? 
Quoit, tennis, ball — no games ? nor deals in that 
Which men delight in, martial exercise ? 
To nurse a blind ideal like a girl, 
Methinks he seems no better than a girl, 
As girls were once, as we ourself have been : 
We had our dreams ; perhaps he mixt with them : 
We touch on our dead self, nor shun to do it, 
Being other — since we learnt our meaning here. 



1 6 Dramatization of Tennyson's *' Princess." 

To lift the woman's fall'n divinity 

Upon an even pedestal with man. 

And as to precontracts, we move, my friend. 

At no man's beck. 

Prince. You grant me license; might I use it? 
think ; 
Ere half be done perchance your life may fail. 
Might I dread that you, 

With only Fame for spouse and your great deeds 
For issue, yet may live in vain, and miss. 
Meanwhile, what every woman counts her due, — 
Love, children, happiness ? 

Priftcess. Peace, you young savage of the Northern 
wild ! 
What ! tho' your Prince's love were like a god's. 
Have we not made ourself the sacrifice ? 
You are bold indeed : we are not talk'd to thus : 
Yet will we say for children, would they grew 
Like field-flowers everywhere ! we like them well : 
But children die ; and let me tell you, girl, 
Howe'er you babble, great deeds cannot die. 
They with the sun and moon renew their light 
Forever, blessing those that look on them. 
Children — that men may pluck them from our 

hearts. 
Kill us with pity, break us with ourselves — 
O — children — there is nothing upon earth 
More miserable than she that has a son 
And sees him err. 

No doubt we seem a kind of monster to you ; 
We are used to that : for women, up till this 
Cramp'd under worse than South-sea-isle taboo, 



Dramatization of Tennyson's'' Priiicessy 17 

Know not, cannot guess 

How much their welfare is a passion to us. 

\The Princess rises. 
There sinks the nebulous star we call the Sun, 
If that hypothesis of theirs be sound. 

\Recites, 

The splendor falls on castle-walls 

And snowy summits old in story ; 
The long light shakes across the lakes, 
And the wild cataract leaps in glory. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying ; 
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

O hark, O hear ! how thin and clear, 

And thinner, clearer, farther going ! 
O sweet and far from cliff and scar. 
The horns of Elfland faintly blowing ! 
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying ; 
Blow, bugle ; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. 

O love, they die in yon rich sky, 

They faint on hill or field or river : 
Our echoes roll from soul to soul. 
And grow forever and forever. 
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying; 
And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, dying. 

\The pupils have been gradually coming nearer, 
and are now grouped about. The Princess 
resumes her seat. 
Princess. Let some one sing to us. 
Lightlier move the minutes fledged with music. 

\Lady Psyche, or one of the pupils, sings. 

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean ; 
Tears from the depth of some divine despair 
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, 
6 2* 



1 8 Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess.' 

In looking on the happy autumn-fields, 
And thinking of the days that are no more. 



Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail 
That brings our friends up from the underworld, 
Sad as the last which reddens over one 
That sinks with all we love below the verge ; 
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. 

Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns 
The earliest pipe of half-awaken' d birds 
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes 
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square ; 
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. 

Dear as remember'd kisses after death. 
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd 
On lips that are for others ; deep as love, 
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret ; 
O Death in Life, the days that are no more. 



Princess. If indeed there haunt 
About the moulder'd lodges of the Past 
So sweet a voice and vague, fatal to men, 
Well needs it we should cram our ears with wool 
And so pace by : but thine are fancies hatch'd 
In silken-folded idleness ; nor is it 
Wiser to weep a true occasion lost, 
But trim our sails, and let old bygones be. 

[To the Prince. 
Know you no song of your own land ? 
Not such as moans about the retrospect, 
But deals with the other distance and the hues 
Of promise ; not a death's-head at the wine. 



Dramatization of Tennyson's *' Princess!' 19 

\The Prince sings, trying to ape a 
maidenlike treble, 

O Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying South, 
Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves, 
And tell her, tell her, what I tell to thee. 

O tell her. Swallow, thou that knowest each, 
That bright and fierce and fickle is the South, 
And dark and true and tender is the North. 

O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and light 
Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill. 
And cheep and twitter twenty million loves. 

O were I thou that she might take me in. 
And lay me on her bosom, and her heart 
Would rock the snowy cradle till I died. 

Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with love, 

Delaying as the tender ash delays 

To clothe herself, when all the woods are green ? 

O tell her. Swallow, that thy brood is flown : 
Say to her, I do but wanton in the South, 
But in the North long since my nest is made. 

O tell her, brief is life, but love is long. 
And brief the sun of summer in the North, 
And brief the moon of beauty in the South. 

O Swallow, flying from the golden woods. 

Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make her mine. 

And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee. 

Princess. A mere love-poem ! O for such, my friend, 
We hold them slight : they mind us of the time 
When we made bricks in Egypt. Knaves are men, 
That lute and flute fantastic tenderness. 
Poor soul ! I had a maid of honor once ; 



20 Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess y 

She wept her true eyes blind for such a one, 

A rogue of canzonets and serenades. 

I loved her. Peace be with her. She is dead. 

So they blaspheme the muse ! But great is song 

Used to great ends. 

Love, is it ? Would this same mock-love, and this 

Mock-Hymen were laid up like winter bats, 

Till all men grew to rate us at our worth ; 

Not vassals to be beat, nor petty babes 

To be dandled, no, but living wills, and sphered 

Whole in ourselves and owed to none. Enough ! 

But now to leaven play with profit, you, 

\To Cyril.'] Know you no song, the true growth of 

your soil. 
That gives the manners of your countrywomen ? 

\_Cyril sings. 

The man in the moon drinks claret, 
Eats powdered beef, turnip and carrot ; 
But a cup of old Malaga sack 
Will fire the bush at his back.* 

[This song, of course, betrays Cyril's sex, and 
creates consternation among the listeners. 



SCENE V. — The hall. The Princess is surrounded 
by her maidens. Melissa, weeping, kneels at her 
feet. The Prince and Florian stand near by. 
Lady Blanche is in a violent passion. 
Lady Blanche. It was not thus, O Princess, in 
old days : 

You prized my counsel, lived upon my Hps. 

* Taken from a song in *' Percy's Reliques." 



Dramatization of Tennyson^ s " Princess^ 21 

I loved you like this kneeler, and you me, 
Your second mother : those were gracious times. 
Then came your new friend : you began to change,— 
I saw it and grieved, — to slacken and to cool ; 
Till, taken with her seeming openness. 
You turn'd your warmer currents all to her, 
To me you froze : this was my meed for all. 
Yet I bore up in part from ancient love, 
And partly that I hoped to win you back. 
And partly conscious of my own deserts, 
And partly that you- were my civil head', 
And chiefly you vv^ere born for something great. 
In which I might your fellow-worker be, 
When time should serve; and thus a noble scheme 
Grew up from seed we two long since had sown. 
We took this palace ; but even from the first 
You stood in your own light and darken'd mine. 
What student came but that you planed her path 
To Lady Psyche, younger, not so wise, 
A foreigner, and I your countrywoman, — 
I your old friend and tried, she new in all ? 
Then came these wolves : they knew her : they en- 
dured, 
Long closeted with her the yestermorn. 
To tell her what they were, and she to hear : 
And me none told. 

Last night their mask was patent, and my foot 
Was to you : but I thought again : I fear'd 
To meet a cold " We thank you, we shall hear of it 
From Lady Psyche." 

I spoke not then at first, but watch'd them well, 
Saw that they kept apart, no mischief done ; 



22 Dramatization of Tennyson's ^^ Princess ^ 

And yet this day (tho' you should hate me for it) 

I came to tell you ; found that you had gone, 

Ridd'n to the hills, she Hkewise : now, I thought, 

That surely she will speak ; if not, then I. 

Did she ? These monsters blazon'd what they were 

According to the coarseness of their kind. 

For thus I hear ; and known at last (my work), 

And full of cowardice and guilty shame, 

I grant in her some sense of shame, she flies ; 

And I remain on whom to wreak your rage. 

I, that have lent my Hfe to build up yours; 

I, that have wasted here health, wealth, and time, 

And talents, I — you know it — I will not boast : 

Dismiss m^e, and I prophesy your plan. 

Divorced from my experience, will be chaff 

For every gust of chance, and men will say 

We did not know the real light, but chased 

The wisp that flickers where no foot can tread. 

Princess \coldly\. Good. Your oath is broken : 
We dismiss you : go. 

Lady Blanche. The plan was mine. 

I built the nest to hatch the cuckoo. 
\To Melissa?^ Rise ! 

\She drags Melissa from the place. 
\A messenger enters hastily and ha?ids to the Princess 

two letters ; these the Princess reads, then hands them 

to the Prince. 

Princess \in a passion~\. Read! 

\Prince reads Gama's letter. 

Prince. " Fair daughter, when we sent the Prince 
your way 
We knew not your ungracious laws, which learnt, 



Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess." 23 

We, conscious of what temper you are built, 
Came all in haste to hinder wrong, but fell 
Into his father's hands, who has this night, 
You lying close upon his territory, 
Slipt round and in the dark invested you, 
And here he keeps me hostage for his son." 

\_He then reads his father's letter. 
" You have our son ; touch not a hair of his head : 
Render him up unscathed : give him your hand : 
Cleave to your contract : tho' indeed we hear 
You hold the woman is the better man ; 
A rampant heresy, such as if it spread 
Would make all women kick against their lords 
Thro' all the world, and which might well deserve 
That we this night should pluck your palace down ; 
And we will do it, unless you send us back 
Our son, on the instant, whole." 

[The Prince turns to Ida. 
Prince. O not to pry and peer on your reserve, 
But led by golden wishes, and a hope 
The child of regal compact, did I break 
Your precinct ; not a scorner of your sex 
But venerator, zealous it should be 
All that it might be : 
A man I came to see you. 
I cannot cease to follow you, as they say 
The seal does music ; who desire you more 
Than growing boys their m^anhood ; dying lips. 
With many thousand matters left to do. 
The breath of life ; O more than poor men wealth. 
Than sick men health — yours, yours, not mine — but 
half 



24 Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess^ 

Without you ; with you, whole ; and of those halves 

You worthiest. I hold 

That it becomes no man to nurse despair, 

But in the teeth of clench'd antagonisms 

To follow up the worthiest till he die. 

Yet that I came not all unauthorized 

Behold your father's letter. 

[Kneels and hands the letter, zvhich the Princess 
dashes unopened at her feet. 
Princess. You have done well and like a gentleman, 
And like a prince : you have our thanks for all : 
And you look well, too, in your woman's dress. 
Well have you done and like a gentleman. 
/ wed with thee ! / bound by precontract 
Your bride, your bondslave ! not tho' all the gold 
That veins the world were packed to make your crown. 
And every spoken tongue should lord you. Sir, 
Your falsehood and yourself are hateful to us : 
I trample on your offers and on you. 
Begone : we will not look upon you more. 

[Exeunt Prince aiid Florian. 



[The Princess persists in her refusal to wed the Prince, and as a re- 
sult of this breach of contract a battle ensues between the followers 
of the hostile monarchs. The Prince is wounded in the fight and 
carried from the field. The Princess, giving way to the hidden ten- 
derness of her nature, opens the college to all the wounded, and 
takes upon herself the care of the Prince]. 



[Let this song be sung behind the scenes^ 

Home they brought her warrior dead ; 
She nor swoon' d, nor uttered cry : 



Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess y 25 

All her maidens, watching, said, 
" She must weep or she will die.'' 

Then they praised him, soft and low, 

Call'd him worthy to be loved, 
Truest friend and noblest foe ; 

Yet she neither spoke nor moved. 

Stole a maiden from her place, 

Lightly to the warrior stept. 
Took the face-cloth from the face ; 

Yet she neither moved nor wept. 

Rose a nurse of ninety years. 

Set his child upon her knee, — 
Like summer tempest came her tears, — 

" Sweet, my child, I live for thee," 

\If desired, the Princess may recite the following. 

Our enemies have fallen, have fallen : the seed. 
The little seed they laugh' d at in the dark. 
Has risen and cleft the soil, and grown a bulk 
Of spanless girth, that lays on every side 
A thousand arms and rushes to the sun. 

Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n : they came ; 
The leaves were wet with women's tears : they heard 
A noise of songs they would not understand. 
They marked it with the red cross to the fall. 
And would have strown it, and are fall'n themselves. 

Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n : they came, 
The woodmen with their axes : lo, the tree ! 
But we will make it fagots for the hearth, 
And shape it plank and beam for roof and floor, 
And boats and bridges for the use of men. 

Our enemies have fall'n, have fall'n : they struck ; 
With their own blows they hurt themselves, nor knew 
There dwelt an iron nature in the grain, 

B 3 



26 Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess.'* 

The glittering axe was broken in their arms. 
Their arms were shatter'd to the shoulder-blade. 

Our enemies have fall'n, but this shall grow 
A night of Summer from the heat, a breadth 
Of Autumn, dropping fruits of power; and rolled 
With music in the growing breeze of Time, 
The tops shall strike from star to star, the fangs 
Shall move the stony bases of the world. 



SCENE VI. — The zvonnded Prince lies sleeping. The 
Princess attends him. As the night wears slowly 
on she takes up a volume of poems and reads. 

Princess. As thro' the land at eve we went, 

And pluck'd the ripen' d ears, 
We fell out, my wife and I, 
O we fell out, I know not why, 

And kissed again with tears ! 
And blessings on the falling out 

That all the more endears. 
When we fall out with those we love 

And kiss again with tears ! 
For when we came where lies the child 

We lost in other years. 
There above the little grave, 
O there above the little grave. 

We kissed again with tears ! 

\The Prince half rouses from his sleep. 
Priiice. If you be, what I think you, some sweet 
dream, 
I would but ask you to fulfil yourself; 
But if you be that Ida whom I knew, 
I ask you nothing : only, if a dream, 



Dramatization of Toiny son's '' Princess!' 27 

Sweet dream, be perfect. I shall die to-night. 
Stoop down and seem to kiss me ere I die. 

\The Princess kisses him, then passes quickly from 
the room. Returning and finding the Prince 
asleep she takes tip her book and reads again. 

Princess. Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white ; 
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk ; 
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font : 
The nre-fly wakens : waken thou with me. 

Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost, 
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me. 

Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars, 
And all thy heart lies open unto me. 

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves 
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me. 

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up, 
And slips into the bosom of the lake ; 
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip 
Into my bosom and be lost in me. 

Prince \zvho is nozv azvake\ Come close beside me. 
\The Princess seats Jierself by the couch. 
Henceforth thou hast a helper, me, that know 
The woman's cause is man's : they rise or sink 
Together, dwarf 'd or godlike, bond or free ; 

She shares with man 
His nights, his days, moves with him to one goal. 

Work no more alone ! 
Woman is not undevelopt man. 
But diverse : could we make her as the man, 
Sweet Love were slain : his dearest bond is this, 



28 Dramatization of Tennyson's " Princess!' 

Not like to like, but like in difference. 

Yet in the long years liker must they grow ; 

The man be more of woman, she of man ; 

He gain in sweetness and in moral height, 

She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care. 

Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind ; 

Till at the last she set herself to man, 

Like perfect music unto noble words. 

And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time, 

Sit side by side, fuU-summ'd in all their powers. 

Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be, 

Self-reverent each and reverencing each. 

Distinct in individualities, 

But like each other, ev'n as those who love. 

Then comes the statelier Eden back to men ; 

Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and 

calm ; 
Then springs the crowning race of humankind. 
May these things be ! 

Princess \sighing\. I fear they will not. 

Prince. Dear, but let us type them now 
In our own lives, and this proud watchword rest 
Of equal ; seeing either sex alone 
Is half itself, and in true marriage lies 
Nor equal, nor unequal : each fulfils 
Defect in each, and always thought in thought, 
Purpose in purpose, will in will they grow. 
The single pure and perfect animal, 
The two-cell'd heart beating, with one full stroke. 
Life. 

Princess. A dream that once was mine. 
What woman taught you this ? 



Dyamatization of Tennyson^ s " Princess!^ 29 

Prince. There was one thro' whom I loved, one 
Not learned, save in gracious household ways ; 
Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants ; 
No angel, but a dearer being, all dipt 
In angel instincts, breathing Paradise. 

Happy he 
With such a mother ! faith in womankind 
Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high 
Comes easy to him, and tho' he trip and fall. 
He shall not blind his soul with clay. 

Princess. But I, so all unlike — 
This mother is your model. 
Prince, you cannot love me. 

Prince. Thee, ere seen, I loved, and loved thee 
seen. 

we will walk this world. 
Yoked in all exercise of noble end. 

And so thro' those dark gates across the wild 
That no man knows ! Indeed, I love thee. Come, 
Yield thyself up : my hopes and thine are one : 
Accomplish thou my manhood and thyself; 
Lay thy sweet hands in mine and trust to me. 

Princess, Ask me no more : thy fate and mine are seal'd. 

1 strove against the stream and all in vain : 
Let the great river take me to the main. 
No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield ; 

Ask me no more. 



